What Makes Homeschooling Attractive?

What Makes Homeschooling Attractive?

Homeschool Efficiency:

In many campus-based schools, time is used at the beginning of the day for announcements, attendance, lunch count, communication envelope management, and other tasks. This often takes 15 minutes. Another 5 minute transition break is used between subjects, sometimes to go to another classroom. For all subjects, that totals about 30 minutes per day. There is usually one longer recess/break per day, which adds another 10 minutes to the class transition break time. Lunch is as long as 50 minutes for many schools. For homeschoolers, as soon as they are done with a subject, they begin the next one immediately. In a campus-based structure, time is lost at the beginning (settling in) and end (getting ready to dismiss) of each class. Sometimes time is lost when a student might just sit at the end of a class, because he is done with the day’s lesson early. These classroom issues can add up to around 55 minutes total each day. If we count a 15 minute each-way travel time (usually more) for the student, there’s another 30 minutes minimum. Not counting older students with their supposed study period of 50 minutes, that comes to 185 minutes per day of non-academic work.

A California school example has school from 8:45am-3:15pm on full days, which comes to 420 minutes including the minimum 15 minute travel times.

So 420 minutes minus the 185 minutes comes to 235 minutes or 3.9 hours of actual education time. With a quick bathroom break, snack, and occasional stretch, a homeschooler can do the same work from 8am-noon.

Campus-based students might have additional homework time to consider, but adding that to homeschooling time would not change the difference outcome. Okay, sure younger students may need more break time, but still it is obvious that homeschooling time can be more efficient.

Higher Quality Family Life

Normally one parent is required to stay at home to supervise homeschooling. By just having one parent at home, the quality of family life increases greatly. Most of us have noticed our society and culture seem to have greater problems today. Although it is due to many factors, one stands out. Both parents are not at home most of the time. The “Quiet Revolution” of women working outside the home began in the 1970′s. Although there were much needed improvements to women’s rights, many believe the loss of a stay at home parent impacted children significantly. Some believe the issue has more to do with families sacrificing the family structure to attain non-essentials. In 1900, 15% of women worked outside of the home. Today, it is 75% and growing. Also due to the increase in daycares and preschools, we can see parents are giving up a substantial amount of caregiver time for their early adolescence children. For busy parents, it also means older children are not supervised as much after school and during school holidays. Both parents working have also impacted the traditional family dinner table. Statistics show teens that frequently have dinner with their families are at a lower risk for substance abuse. Additional Reasons

Financial Efficiency:

For many parents, these savings can offset a large part of homeschool program costs.

it saves transportation costs such as gasoline, maintenance, and vehicle depreciation due to multiple daily school runs

it saves money from more expensive and sometimes not as healthy school lunches

it saves on clothing costs

it saves because there are usually no fundraising requirements

it saves because the multiple incidental costs a campus-based structure has are not required

For example: It would cost over $1000 in gas and vehicle expenses per year if figuring $3 for each trip to drive a student to and from school each day for a 170 day school year. Saving only $1 per student lunch by having lunch at home would save $170 per year, plus would allow parents to better monitor eating habits.

Safety:

A person only needs to follow the news to be concerned with school safety.

The National Center for Juvenile Justice clearly shows an increase in juvenile court caseloads from where we were in 1960. A CDC.gov 2010 survey stated that almost 1/3 of high school students were in a physical fight in the previous 12 months with 1/3 of the fights on school property. There were 17.5% that claimed to have carried a weapon in the previous 30 days with 5.6% carrying on school property. Approximately 6% claimed to have carried a gun in the previous 30 days. There were 7.7% that reported being threatened by a weapon on school property in the last 12 months. The FBI’s UCR database shows that 41% of all arrests are people 24 years old and under. Statistics for youth across all areas are going the wrong way. Youth crime is increasing and adult crime is decreasing.

An average campus-based student will make over 350 trips per year just to go to and from school.

The additional traveling for family members increases the risk of accidents, whether in a vehicle or as a pedestrian.

Two Top Homeschool Programs That Make Homeschooling Easier:

Here are two choices we are familiar with that have students in all 50 states, so they can take the work out of meeting state requirements. They have many extra benefits along with accreditation. Schools were selected by a combination of cost, years in existence, multiple accreditations, multiple biblical curriculum options, achievement testing included, pre-K through 12th, and options for extra teacher support: